Monday, November 28, 2011

I am planning to put up lights soon, and I want to get a tree on December 13th. See, I married my dear husband on the 12th of December, and at my wedding I had a minor freak out over a Christmas tree being in the room. I want my wedding to be different than Christmas.

It seems odd to only have a tree for about two weeks, but I don't want to think about Xmas until after I think about being married for two years. Two whole years. Half of my time in college, The entirety of my time in middle school.... It feels bigger than it is, and at the same time smaller. It's only two years. But there has been a lot in those two years. Happy days, sad days, angry days, joyful days, sleepy days, sick days... but the big thing is that we have been there for each other the whole time.

Liam is doing his best to be a typical toddler now. Into everything, getting in trouble, being a pest sometimes and being the cutest little thing all the time, even when he is being a pest. He is learning some new things, like to put his arm out for the coat to go on, and to lift up his legs so I can get his pants on. He is learning how to bounce and jump with his own power and he is learning to make connections. Like the toy leopard and the leopard in the book are the same thing, they are both leopard.

He also gives kisses pretty regularly now, which is a no fail warm and fuzzy moment in any day. No matter how rotten you feel a little baby giving you sloppy kisses on your cheek or the side of your mouth just makes you feel like the world is made of rainbows and sunshine.

He and Nym get into all kinds of trouble!

Climbing on the couch to bother the cat. What a team!

The gym thing is going along. I am at a sort of hold right now. I can only do so much and I can't seem to push past it to do more. Some days I even do less because it simply feels like my body just can not physically do that anymore. I think I might need to change my routine or change what time I go to the gym and see if that helps. The oldest of the three ladies in the day care is my favorite. I like the other two, but I like her best. Of course I can not remember her name and that makes me sad. But I brought her cookies the other day because we were talking about cookies and I had made a bunch at home and needed to get rid of them before I ate them all. She was happy about that!

Oh, and thanksgiving was nice. We drove down to Grants Pass to spend the day with my dad and step mom and Liam had a blast playing with the dogs!

Less than thrilled about the car ride. He is not a binky addict, but he does chew on them sometimes and it keeps him amused.

He ate some turkey and one sweet potato and then he discovered the raspberry jello and also the cranberry sauce. I figured one meal of mostly sugar couldn't hurt and let him go to town.

This was just at the start, by the end the cranberry sauce was even into his HAIR!

He also learned how to feed the dogs off of his highchair tray and that it was great fun to give them turkey. Amber and Crystal, the Labs, really liked having a munchkin around. Liam really liked having a bigger dog to climb all over. Nym had fun playing with the American Eskimo doggy that my step mom got, her name is Angel. She and Nym had a fun filled morning walk where they just about levitated over all the ground outside as they ran after each other filled with the boundless energy of puppies.

Loving on the Crystal

Giving the best hugs!

Just hanging out together!

And now that it is cold outside we are having to find more and more things to do indoors, including making home made play dough and playing in cardboard boxes! And I got out the trampoline for Liam, but Nym likes it as well.

Trampoline Buddies!

Learning to Bounce

Play Dough!

We are putting together gifts to send out this year, and a nice Christmas card as well. I am grateful to be able to afford gifts this year, it makes me feel happy to be able to do that. I know that a gift is not necessary and no one will hate us for not giving any if we really can't, but I know how much fun it is to open things up!

I wish I had more time to update this blog more frequently. The odd thing is, I do have the time, but I forget how much time has passed since I last wrote things down!

I am sure I will write something else before Christmas, but JUST IN CASE....

Have a Merry Happy Holiday Season to everyone, Christmas, Solstice, Hanukkah and all the other fun celebrations of winter! Remember to spread the love and make some cookies, if not for Santa, than to give to a neighbor just because its FUN!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Tonight my resolve to give Liam at least ONE sibling was strengthened even more than it has been. More than the desire to have another child to snuggle and love on, more than wanting to do the baby thing again and see them grow into amazing people... tonight it was about sharing and how an only child sees things.

You see... I have Only Child Problems. I don't like to share my space. My ideas are the best ones. I am the leader. I am the boss. And tonight, I got weirdly possessive about space in the bedroom. Dan's dresser has been sitting in the garage for a few months now. Many months. Since we moved in!

First it was about treating it for the mold on it from the old apartment. Then it was him wanting to wait for the back board to be shipped from Indiana, then it was about him saying he was going to refinish it, and then it was about MY stuff taking up too much space. (he changed his mind on refinishing...) and then tonight I finally got my stuff cleaned up and in theory we could move his dresser in tomorrow.

But it has to go on my side of the bedroom.

Wait... MY side? but really... it is a dresser. I am just as likely as him to heave a laundry basket on top of it and not put away the clothes for a week until I need the basket again for the next load of laundry.

I have a dresser now. He deserves to have one too, if for no other reason than to get his stuff out of the tupperware bins in the closet and give us more space for hanging things up.

BUT ITS MY SIDE OF THE BEDROOM!

Its MY kitchen and if I don't like where something is, I will move it. Forget that HE is the chef. (granted, I do most of the cooking at home....) It is MY back yard and if he wants to put in a plant I BETTER DAMN WELL LIKE THAT PLANT and I get the final say in where it goes. You get the idea....

I say how the living room looks, I say how Liam's room looks... I do not share my SPACE well. I can share food, I can share items (as long as they end up back where they started)...

Thankfully he usually has no major opinion one way or the other on most of this stuff and when he does we will battle it out and we sometimes find a way to agree, but more often than not I win because I can come up with a logical reason why it should be my way and he usually can not come up with that kind of logic on the fly. Or I win because I can see the Danger sign flashing in my head of Liam getting into something if he does it his way.

I told him once that even if we disagree on something if he can present to me a LOGICAL and well thought out reason why something should be a certain way I would be more likely to consider it. But he normally can't. So I end up winning.

I don't even know why there has to BE a winner. I don't know why we can not meet in the middle on more things. He can get just as stubborn as I can, but its not about his SPACE or where things are really.

But I think part of why he can be so easy going about things its that he had two younger brothers. And what do you wanna bet that a big part of his childhood was giving them things. Space, time, the seat on the couch where his feet were before they launched themselves onto that space... He is use to sharing his space because he never knew it any other way.

I want Liam to be as selfless and sharing as Dan is, as children with siblings are. I am not selfless, I am not as generous as some others. I know this, I am working on it... but I think that some of it comes from being an only child and never having to share. It was all mine! There was no one else I needed to save the last cookie for, no one else I needed to share my room with or my toys. I could share well enough with friends because I knew they would be leaving at some point and then it was ALL MINE again.

Hopefully life will be kind and grant Liam a sibling so that 30 years down the road when he is married and his spouse wants to put their dresser in the bedroom he will not sit there on the bed and be peeved about it being on HIS half of the room and taking up wall space and have to mentally process that it really is no big deal and finally come to terms with it by writing a blog post about why being an only child made him into a semi-posessive little twerp.

At least I know this is a problem with me and I can work on it. Sometimes. Kinda.... UGH. MINE MINE MINE! AUUUUGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!